Minister says “backward” system saved Iraq from credit crisis

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The Iraqi minister of finance on Sunday said that Iraq has not been influenced “at all” with the repercussion of the current international credit crunch due to the “backwardness” of its banking system. “Iraq invests in Treasury bonds, which are very far from any harm,” Baqir Jabr al-Zubeidi said in an exclusive interview broadcast by the semi-official al-Iraqiya TV station on Sunday. The minister attributed the matter to a “backward banking system” inherited from the former regime, which he said mainly relies on the Iraqi dinar in its circulation of money, rather than emails or electronic money transfers. The current credit crisis, which most analysts link to the sub-prime mortgage business, has hit most of the world’s economies, particularly in the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. SS (P)/SR 1